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Expert: Gulf Oil Spill Won't Ruin Your Shrimp Dinner

The idea of eating a platter of shrimp pulled from the same water where a sunken oil rig continues to leak 42,000 gallons of oil each day may not be appetizing to some, but some guy who claims to know a lot about the topic says you need not fret.

Says Mike Voisin, past president of the National Fisheries Institute:

No one should be worrying about whether the shrimp they’re having for dinner is going to have oil on it… First, no company wants to put that kind of product on the market… And those areas that have oil in them will be blocked by state health officials and not harvested.

Voisin also claims that fish like tuna and shrimp will instinctively migrate away from the oil spill. He did admit that oysters are the most at risk because they lack the ability to move.

Though a good chunk of domestically caught seafood comes from the Gulf of Mexico, 80% of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported.

But if the spill moves further toward land it could wreak long-term havoc on the ecosystem and the Gulf fishing industry.

“We’re very concerned that east of the Mississippi River, based on currents and winds we’re dealing with now, this oil will reach the shore,” says Chuck Wilson, a Louisiana State University oceanography and coastal sciences professor. “That could be a huge environmental problem and a significant financial blow to fisheries… But your food will be safe.”